That’s is the hope for baseball at North Vermillion Junior-Senior High School in Cayuga, Ind., after the school saw its football team make it to the state championship game last fall and its boys basketball team advance to the regional championship contest this winter.

The Falcons’ top two pitchers — senior right-hander Alex Tallman and junior righty Luke Osborn — are also back for 2019.

Hank Lopez, who is defensive coordinator in football and the father of Derek Foncannon (a Vincennes, Ind., University baseball commit), returns for his fourth season as North Vermillion’s head baseball coach. His assistant coaches are Maris Clark and Paul Hamilton.

“We want to be mentally tough,” says Lopez of his team’s core values. “They’ve put in some adverse situations in practice that hopefully make the games a little easier.

“We have high expectations.”

Lopez says there are usually 18 or 19 players in the program for varsity and junior varsity teams. This year it should be 15. The Falcons have a large junior class, but just one sophomore.

Feeding the high school program is a seventh and eighth grade junior high club coordinated by Lopez which plays 12 to 14 games in the spring.

A North Vermillion Pony League squad for grades 7-10 plays about that many games plus an end-of-season tournament in the summer.

Among other non-conference foes are North Central (Farmersburg), Shakamak and West Vigo along with Illinois teams Bismarck-Henning, Georgetown-Ridge Farm/Chrisman and Westville. Cayuga is less than five miles from the Indiana-Illinois state line.

The Falcons are part of an IHSAA Class 1A sectional grouping with Attica, Covington, Parke Heritage (consolidation of Rockville and Turkey Run) and Riverton Parke. North Vermillion has won five sectional crowns — the last in 1997.

NV home games on-campus. Lopez says there has been discussions about re-working the infield and mound.

IHSAA official practice began March 11. During the limited contact period, Lopez had his team working out when they could find gym space.

“We threw in he gym whenever we could get it,” says Lopez. “If it was nice enough outside, we’d throw in the parking lot. We did conditioning in the hallways of the high school. We did baseball and flip drills in the weight room.

“We did a lot of conditioning, arm strengthening and working on swing technique and instilling the fundamentals. We wanted to hit the ground running when practice starts.”

Before going to North Vermillion, Lopez was assistant to Charlie Martin at Riverton Parke for one season then spent 10 years as Panthers head coach.

Lopez is a 1998 graduate of Vincennes Lincoln High School, where Chris Rhodes was his head coach, and 2002 graduate of Indiana State University, where he earned a elementary education degree with a social studies endorsement.

“He was a hard-nosed, fundamental-type of coach,” says Lopez of Rhodes, who was also his seventh grade basketball coach. “He was very successful in Vincennes.”

The Rhodes-coached Alices won sectional titles in 1996 and 1997 and a regional championship in 1996. Rhodes later coached at DeKalb.

“Attitude’s such a big thing,” says Wildcats head coach Tim Terry. “They pick each other up (and don’t point fingers when things don’t go their way). Once everybody starts doing that, that attitude is catching and they don’t stay down.”

During the season, the team comes to school early to get in some hitting practice.

“The kids work pretty hard,” says Terry. “We hit every morning. We probably take at least 100 cuts before school starts. That has a lot to do with our success.”

The Wildcats went 20-4 in 2017 and followed that up with 27-4 in 2018. The 2017 squad set a school record for consecutive victories with 15. With six starters moved on, the 2018 team won the first 20 games of the season and went on to earn the program’s ninth sectional championship and seventh on Terry’s watch.

“I’ve got an advantage because with a lot of these players, their dads played for me I’ve been around so long,” says Terry, who has helped the Wildcats take sectional hardware in 1982, 1985, 1988, 1995, 2002 (2A), 2014 (2A) and 2018 (2A).

At the 2018 postseason banquet, Terry brought out some of those trophies for two-generation photo opportunities.

Between the genuine family atmosphere and players going out to breakfast after the early-morning hitting sessions and many of them playing in the summers together with Clinton American Legion Post 140, there is plenty of camaraderie.

“We had real good unity,” says Terry of the 2018 squad, which featured four seniors, four juniors, two sophomores and four freshmen. “Everybody accepted their roles and I didn’t have to worry one bit about that kind of stuff.

“In this day and age, those kids are hard to find. (Many) think they ought to be varsity players as soon as they walk up. That’s not the case if you want to have a good program.”

Most South Vermillion players grow up playing in the Clinton Little League. The three youngest Terry boys have played travel ball with the Terre Haute-based Indiana Havoc.

T.J. Terry is now the Clinton Post 140 manager with his father as an assistant coach.

Tim Terry was a three-sport athlete at Clinton High, playing football for coaches Rene Foli and Brent Anderson (South Vermillion gridders now plays on Coach Brent Anderson Field), basketball for coach Ron Henricks (the Clinton Wildcats won a Western Indiana Conference title during Terry’s prep career) and baseball for coach Don Shearer (1968-81 at Clinton/South Vermillion).

Terry went on to play baseball for coaches Jim Rendel and Bob Warn at Indiana State. His first teaching job came at Turkey Run High School in Marshall, Ind. His second year there, he became head baseball coach and was then coaxed home to join Shearer’s coaching staff at South Vermillion before taking over the reins.

For more than three decades, Terry was also head girls basketball coach at South Vermillion. He gave that up after the 2013-14 season. He has been the school’s athletic director for four-plus years.

The Wildcats are members of the Wabash River Conference (along with Attica, Covington, Fountain Central, North Vermillion, Parke Heritage, Riverton Parke and Seeger).

Tim Terry, a 1973 Clinton (Ind.) High School graduate, has been head baseball coach at South Vermillion High School since the 1982 season. (Steve Krah Photo)

Neal coached North Newton to 20- and 18-win seasons in his two seasons leading the program (2014 and 2015). The Spartans were put out of the IHSAA sectional both years by Lafayette Central Catholic.

In two seasons of guiding the Frontier Falcons, Neal saw the team win 15 and eight games.

As the Attica Ramblers get ready for the Class 1A Rockville Sectional, they look back on a 7-14 regular season. Attica and Rockville are paired in the first game of the sectional Wednesday, May 23. Other teams in the field are Covington, North Vermillion, Riverton Parke and Turkey Run.

Attica is in the Wabash River Conference (along with Covington, Fountain Central, North Vermillion, Riverton Parke, Seeger, South Vermillion and Turkey Run).

Neal grew up in Ladoga in Mongomery County. His earliest baseball experiences came at Ladoga Little League.

Between his eighth grade and freshmen year, he played for the traveling Montgomery County All-Stars and also for the Southmont High School summer team.

Neal learned fundamentals from Mounties coach Jerry Long and logged a few innings on the mound as a freshman, gleaning much from a senior catcher.

In 1998, Neal was part of a Southmont team that lost to eventual 2A state runner-up Evansville Mater Dei in the semifinals of the Richmond Semistate.

His last two high school years, Neal attended Bethesda Christian in Brownsburg. At the time, the school was not affiliated with the IHSAA.

But Neal picked up plenty of know-how from coach Bill Sampen, a former major league pitcher.

“He was a huge part of my growth in baseball,” says Neal of Sampen, who runs the Indiana Expos travel organization and Samp’s Hack Shack training facility. “He was real big on thinking the game of baseball. He’s just a smart guy.

The next summer, he switched to the Indiana Bulldogs and also played for the other two squads.

Leading into his junior year at Bethesda Christian, he again played for the Bulldogs.

He attended many camps before his senior year and wound up with a baseball scholarship to NCAA Division I Southeast Missouri State University. He was primarily a reserve second baseman in his one season in Cape Girardeau.

Mark Hogan was the Redhawks head coach. Neal credits SEMO assistant Scott Southard for teaching him the finer points of infield play.

“The coaches there were real supportive of a freshman in Division I baseball, where the speed of the game excelerates tenfold,” says Neal. “I learned to play at a higher pace and saw different kinds of pitching.”

“I learned perseverance and more on the spiritual side of things,” says Neal. “I learned how to handle myself on the field. It was a great experience.”

After his playing days, Neal spent a year gaining knowledge about the coaching profession as an IWU graduate assistant.

He then went into the work world for about seven or eight years, all the while teaching private lessons to stay involved in baseball.

Along the way, he got his teaching degree from Indiana Wesleyan, served three seasons as a Southmont assistant and then took his first head coaching gig at North Newton.

Kyle Neal, the head baseball coach at Attica Junior/Senior High School, shares a moment with sons Krew (9 months) and Carson (7).

The Neal family: Kyle and Christy with sons Carson (7) and Krew (9 months). Kyle Neal is in his first season as head baseball coach, physical eduction and strength training teacher at Attica Junior/Senior High School in Fountain County, Ind.